Wednesday

Creekside and Ponte Vedra are both still alive in the District 4-4A baseball tournament.

With host Creekside ahead 4-1 in the top of the sixth, heavy rain forced a halt in the action Tuesday night.

Because it is a district tournament game, the contest will be completed instead of it just being called official as a regular-season game would be.

The last two innings will be played following today's first semifinal game between Bartram Trail and Palatka, which starts at 4 p.m.

Creekside and Ponte Vedra will take the field when that game is finished -- approximately 7 p.m. The winner will then face Nease in a semifinal game at approximately 7:30 p.m. All action will take place at Creekside.

Creekside scored the first run in its first at-bat by taking advantage of a lead-off walk to Kyle Spivey.

He came around to score when Ladson Montgomery's sharp grounder couldn't be handled and rolled deep into right-center field.

Spivey also scored the second run of the game in the third inning. After he doubled and advanced to third on Montgomery's groundout, Patrick Leonard brought him home with a single.

Ponte Vedra made it 2-1 in the fifth when Kenny Byram singled in Nathan Allen.

The Knights increased their lead to 4-1 in the bottom half of the fifth. Patrick Leonard scored on a dropped fly ball, and Ty Allen brought in a run with his bases-loaded bunt. In the top of the sixth, the rain started to increase in intensity as the Sharks put two men on base. Aldo Ferrante and Kevin Young each hit singles. With nobody out, Chris Teifer had a 2-1 count against him when the umpire stopped play at 8:54 p.m.

Leonard started and was still pitching for Creekside when the game interrupted. Elliott Warford worked the first five innings for Ponte Vedra.

Nease 7, Matanzas 2

Top-seeded Nease advanced to the semifinals of the district tournament with a victory over Matanzas, which won the play-in game Monday.

The Panthers (19-7) opened a 4-0 lead by scoring twice in each of the first two innings.

That made things easy for starter Andrew Stricklin, who pitched five scoreless innings.

Spencer Brown entered and pitched the last two innings for his seventh save of the season. But the Pirates made it interesting with two runs in the top of the sixth inning, cutting the Nease lead to 4-2.

In the bottom of the sixth, Will Hannah led off with a double, and Tyler Barlow walked. Tyler Weir gave Nease a big cushion by smacking a three-run home run.

Also for Nease, Eric Tinnesz was 2 for 4. PJ Tracy added a two-run single.

Palatka 7, Menendez 0

The second-seeded Panthers blew open a tight game in the fifth inning and ended the Falcons' season

Palatka led 2-0 going into the inning before errors led to a couple runs in that frame. The Panthers tacked on three more in the next inning.

Bartram coach Tony Sowers collected his 300th career victory as the Bears advanced to district semifinals. Sowers is the only coach in Bartram's 10-year history. He previously coached at Nease for four seasons.

Beau Hilton was a key part of the victory, pitching all six innings for the Bears (13-13). He also went 2 for 4 with a pair of RBIs. Michael Babb had a big day, going 2 for 4, with a two-run home run, a double and three RBIs.

Among the other hitting stars for the Bears were Trey Pickett (2 for 2, double, three runs, RBI, two HBP), Nick McNeil (3 for 3, RBI, two walks), Nathan Reaux (two RBIs), Kevin Alvarez (2 for 3, two RBIs), Brandon Yost (2 for 3 RBI, walk), Connor Marabell (2 for 2, two RBIs, double, two walks) and Beau Hilton (2 for 4, two RBIs).

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